Influence of psychological coping on survival and recurrence in people with cancer: systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To summarise the evidence on the effect of psychological coping styles (including fighting spirit, helplessness/hopelessness, denial, and avoidance) on survival and recurrence in patients with cancer. DESIGN: Systematic review of published and unpublished prospective observational studies. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: Survival from or recurrence of cancer. RESULTS: 26 studies investigated the association between psychological coping styles and survival from cancer, and 11 studies investigated recurrence. Most of the studies that investigated fighting spirit (10 studies) or helplessness/hopelessness (12 studies) found no significant associations with survival or recurrence. The evidence that other coping styles play an important part was also weak. Positive findings tended to be confined to small or methodologically flawed studies; lack of adjustment for potential confounding variables was common. Positive conclusions seemed to be more commonly reported by smaller studies, indicating potential publication bias. CONCLUSION: There is little consistent evidence that psychological coping styles play an important part in survival from or recurrence of cancer. People with cancer should not feel pressured into adopting particular coping styles to improve survival or reduce the risk of recurrence. [References: 42

Promoting nutrition sensitive and climate smart agriculture through increased use of traditional underutilised species in the Pacific

Poster presented at Tropentag 2014. International Conference on Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development. "Bridging the Gap between Increasing Knowledge and Decreasing Resources" Prague (Czech Republic) Sep 17-19 2014

New Limits on Local Lorentz Invariance in Mercury and Cesium

We report new bounds on Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) violation in Cs and Hg. The limits are obtained through the observation of the the spin- precession frequencies of 199Hg and 133Cs atoms in their ground states as a function of the orientation of an applied magnetic field with respect to the fixed stars. We measure the amplitudes of the dipole couplings to a preferred direction in the equatorial plane to be 19(11) nHz for Hg and 9(5) microHz for Cs. The upper bounds established here improve upon previous bounds by about a factor of four. The improvement is primarily due to mounting the apparatus on a rotating table. New bounds are established on several terms in the standard model extension including the first bounds on the spin-couplings of the neutron and proton to the z direction, <7e-30 GeV and <7e-29 GeV, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Manual measurement of retinal bifurcation features

This paper introduces a new computerized tool for accurate manual measurement of features of retinal bifurcation geometry, designed for use in investigating correlations between measurement features and clinical conditions. The tool uses user-placed rectangles to measure the vessel width, and lines placed along vessel center lines to measure the angles. An analysis is presented of measurements taken from 435 bifurcations. These are compared with theoretical predictions based on optimality principles presented in the literature. The new tool shows better agreement with the theoretical predictions than a simpler manual method published in the literature, but there remains a significant discrepancy between current theory and measured geometry

The Outer Edges of Dwarf Irregular Galaxies: Stars and Gas

We have in recent years come to view dwarf galaxy evolution in the broader context of the cosmic evolution of large-scale structure. Dwarf galaxies, as the putative building blocks of hierarchical galaxy formation, and also as the most numerous galaxies in the Universe, play a central role in cosmic evolution. In particular, the interplay of galactic and intergalactic material around dwarf irregulars must be more extensive than in more massive disk galaxies because of their lower gravitational potential and lower interstellar pressures. The outer regions of dwarf irregular galaxies therefore yield vital clues to the dominant processes in this interaction zone. The Workshop addressed a number of questions related to the role of the outer regions in the evolution of dwarf galaxies and broader consequences. On-line Workshop Proceedings are at http://www.lowell.edu/Workshops/Lowell02/Comment: Summary of the 2002 Lowell Observatory Workshop, to appear in PASP Conference Highlights; 6 pp, uses aaspp4.sty. On-line Proceedings at http://www.lowell.edu/Workshops/Lowell02

Length control of microtubules by depolymerizing motor proteins

In many intracellular processes, the length distribution of microtubules is controlled by depolymerizing motor proteins. Experiments have shown that, following non-specific binding to the surface of a microtubule, depolymerizers are transported to the microtubule tip(s) by diffusion or directed walk and, then, depolymerize the microtubule from the tip(s) after accumulating there. We develop a quantitative model to study the depolymerizing action of such a generic motor protein, and its possible effects on the length distribution of microtubules. We show that, when the motor protein concentration in solution exceeds a critical value, a steady state is reached where the length distribution is, in general, non-monotonic with a single peak. However, for highly processive motors and large motor densities, this distribution effectively becomes an exponential decay. Our findings suggest that such motor proteins may be selectively used by the cell to ensure precise control of MT lengths. The model is also used to analyze experimental observations of motor-induced depolymerization.Comment: Added section with figures and significantly expanded text, current version to appear in Europhys. Let

A neural network version of the measure correlate predict algorithm for estimating wind energy yield.

A neural network version of the measure correlate predict algorithm for estimating wind energy yiel

The Complexity of Admissibility in Omega-Regular Games

Iterated admissibility is a well-known and important concept in classical game theory, e.g. to determine rational behaviors in multi-player matrix games. As recently shown by Berwanger, this concept can be soundly extended to infinite games played on graphs with omega-regular objectives. In this paper, we study the algorithmic properties of this concept for such games. We settle the exact complexity of natural decision problems on the set of strategies that survive iterated elimination of dominated strategies. As a byproduct of our construction, we obtain automata which recognize all the possible outcomes of such strategies

Mode-locked Bloch oscillations in a ring cavity

We present a new technique for stabilizing and monitoring Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice under the action of a constant external force. In the proposed scheme, the atoms also interact with a unidirectionally pumped optical ring cavity whose one arm is collinear with the optical lattice. For weak collective coupling, Bloch oscillations dominate over the collective atomic recoil lasing instability and develop a synchronized regime in which the atoms periodically exchange momentum with the cavity field.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure